Magny Cours: Foggy Racing race report

Foggy focuses on further development for FPR
Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Troy Corser and Chris Walker scored a top
ten double in the final race of the 2004 Superbike World Championship to
complete a second season of development for the PETRONAS...

Foggy focuses on further development for FPR

Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Troy Corser and Chris Walker scored a top
ten double in the final race of the 2004 Superbike World Championship to
complete a second season of development for the PETRONAS FP1 and Carl
Fogarty's team.

Chris also finished the first race of the day at the French circuit of
Magny-Cours in eighth place, although Troy was unable to capitalise on
his pole position performance of Saturday when engine trouble brought an
early end to his race.

James Toseland won both races to oust Troy as the youngest Superbike
World Champion at the age of 24, while PETRONAS further cemented their
position of third in the manufacturer standings by finishing 71 points
ahead of Kawasaki.

And Carl Fogarty was able to take encouragement from both the final
round and the season as a whole as his team enter an extensive programme
of winter development of the PETRONAS FP1 - the first Malaysian
superbike.

He said: "This was just our second year of development and we have made
big steps forward again. There have been a few highs, with our two
podiums and two pole positions, and also a lot of top six finishes. The
new PETRONAS engine development team have not had much time to get their
teeth stuck into the task but now we have a full winter of testing and
development ahead of us and there is no doubt that we will be stronger
next year, albeit in a stronger championship. So the aim for next year
is to be running in the top five or six and challenging for podiums in
every race.

"The weekend was an improvement on the previous couple of rounds but we
probably expected more after Troy's incredible pole position yesterday.
Our hopes were high for a couple of top six finishes and we were only
just outside that, so it wasn't a bad weekend."

Troy was lying in sixth place when he was forced to retire from the
first race on the 14th lap with a broken engine. And, despite further
technical difficulties in the second race, he finished seventh to finish
the season ninth in the rider standings with a total of 146 points.

He said: "The season has been a bit up and down. I have been riding well
although small problems have meant too much time in the pit box. But
PETRONAS and the whole team have done a great job and it should be good
for next season. Everything came together for Superpole yesterday and
it was fantastic to be finishing the season on such a high. But we were
still a little bit slow on top speed up the back straight and, although
I was trying to hang on after two good starts, it was a bit frustrating
because the bike was much better this weekend."

Chris battled hard in both races to finish eighth, despite also enduring
clutch problems from early in the race, to end the season in 11th place
just two points behind Marco Borciani with a total of 128.

He said: "I have finished the season in 11th yet I have only made one
mistake all year. The number of races I haven't finished has been
the problem. But the bike has improved a lot under the new engine
development team and the engine felt good this weekend. I had a clutch
problem in the second race and was free-wheeling every time I shut the
throttle. In the first race I ended up battling with Leon and was faster
than him through a couple of left-handers, but had lost too much in
the previous corner because the rear was backing in so much. It's so
frustrating to see the leaders edging away but, once the tyres start to
go off, I lose time coming out of the corners as well as going in."